{"id":98046,"date":"2025-03-18T18:29:34","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T18:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/as-kigali-forward-okwi-retires-from-international-football"},"modified":"2025-04-18T17:57:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T17:57:45","slug":"as-kigali-forward-okwi-retires-from-international-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/as-kigali-forward-okwi-retires-from-international-football","title":{"rendered":"AS Kigali forward Okwi retires from international football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Uganda captain Emmanuel Arnold Okwi has called it quit from international football at aged 32.<\/p>\n<p>Okwi made his debut for the Cranes on March 7, 2009, which was before his 17th birthday and has gone on to make 95 appearances, scoring 28 goals which makes him Uganda&#8217;s all-time top scorer.<\/p>\n<p>The AS Kigali forward officially announced his retirement on March 18 \u201cso that the new generation can also showcase their talent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Representing my country on the international stage has been a fulfilling dream that came true. Donning the Ugandan Cranes shirt always left a special feeling and captaining was an absolute honour,&#8221; Okwi said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; An exciting new era of Ugandan football is coming with East Africa hosting the CHAN later this August and subsequently the 2027 AFCON with many young footballers coming up. That is why, having cherished all memories, I believe it is time for me to bow out and pave the way for our talented young footballers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>With 98 international appearances under his belt, Okwi leaves as Uganda\u2019s second most capped player of all time. At club level, he has played for Simba SC and Young Africans in Tanzania, Etoile du Sahel in Tunisia, Al Ittihad in Egypt and Kiyovu Sports among others.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, he plays for AS Kigali for whom he has scored 6 goals in the Rwanda Premier League this season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Rwanda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. Uganda captain Emmanuel Arnold Okwi has called it quit from international football at aged 32. Okwi made his debut for the Cranes on March 7, 2009, which was before his 17th birthday and has gone on to make 95 appearances, scoring 28 goals which makes him Uganda&#8217;s all-time top scorer. The AS [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":98045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[3179,7111,758,7112],"class_list":["post-98046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-as-kigali","tag-emmanuel-okwi","tag-rwanda","tag-uganda-cranes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AS Kigali forward Okwi retires from international football - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Uganda captain Emmanuel Arnold Okwi has called it quit from international football at aged 32. 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